Critical Theory - short summary

Critical Theory

•         Traditional theory is oriented only to understanding or explaining society

•         Critical theory, in contrast, is social theory oriented toward critiquing and changing society as a whole.

•         A critical theory provides the descriptive and normative bases for social inquiry aimed at decreasing domination and increasing freedom in all their forms

Critical Theory: Narrow and Broad

•         Critical Theory has a narrow and a broad meaning in philosophy and in the history of the social sciences

•         In the narrow sense it designates several generations of German philosophers and social theorists in the Western European Marxist tradition known as the Frankfurt School

–        Max Horkheimer

–        Theodor Adorno

–        Herbert Marcuse

–        Leo Lowenthal

–        Erich Fromm

•         Although this “narrow” conception of critical theory originated with the Frankfurt School, it also prevails among other recent social scientists, such as

–        Pierre Bourdieu,

–        Louis Althusser and arguably

–        Michel Foucault and

–        Bryan Reynolds,

–        as well as certain feminist theorists and social scientists.

•         According to these theorists, a theory is critical to the extent that it seeks human emancipation

–        “to liberate human beings from the circumstances that enslave them” (Horkheimer 1982, 244)

•         Because such theories aim to explain and transform all the circumstances that enslave human beings, many “critical theories” in the broader sense have been developed.

–        world systems theory,

–        feminist theory,

–        postcolonial theory,

–        critical race theory,

–        critical media studies,

–        queer theory,

•         Core concepts are

–        That critical social theory should be directed at the totality of society in its historical specificity (i.e. how it came to be configured at a specific point in time)

–        That Critical Theory should improve understanding of society by integrating all the major social sciences, including economics, sociology, history, political science, anthropology, and psychology

–        The normative orientation of Critical Theory, at least in its form of critical social inquiry, is therefore towards the transformation of capitalism into a “real democracy”

•         A critical theory is adequate only if it meets three criteria:

–        It must be explanatory: explain what is wrong with current social reality

–        It must be practical: identify the actors to change it

–        It must be normative: provide both clear norms for criticism and achievable practical goals for social transformation

•         It must satisfy all three of these criteria at the same time